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The Willetton Open was held at the Moresby St Hall, as usual. It only attracted a smallish field but turned out to be a very interesting tournament, with a number of players achieving breakthrough results. With 4 players from the recent WA Closed Championship playing, it would have been easy to predict that one of them would win the event. This turned out to be far from the truth, with only Akef Saleh from that 4 finishing in the top three. Peter de Yaak�s performance was not exactly a surprise. Since his appearance in Perth, he has had very good results, mostly at the Perth Chess Club, but he did come equal first in the recent WA Reserves/Qualifying tournament. Until the last round, he was playing smoothly and confidently, and his score of 5/5 included wins against 4 of the top 6 players. He looked all over a winner but, in the last round, he came up against a charging Steven Hintz, made a mistake in a critical position, and was swiftly punished. Steven lost his first game against Robert Hvistendahl, then won 5 games in a row! Because of his 'Swiss Gambit', his draw was slightly easier but it was still a stunning result for someone rated in the bottom half. Adam Kelly also played very well to record his first top three finish in an Open tournament. Perhaps his best win was against Robert Hvistendahl in the last round. Adam has been making very good progress this year, and this result is further evidence of that. Akef Saleh had another reasonable result, his two losses came at the hands of Peter de Yaak and Robert Hvistendahl. Robert also played quite well, with wins against Marc Vlietstra, Akef Saleh and Steven Hintz, but just dropped out of the top places with losses in the last two rounds. Marc Vliestra and Dave Dempster were simply not at their best. I will mention just one other result. One of my young students, Ignatius Yap, won his first game against an adult in a rated tournament! This may not sound like such a big deal, but I believe that it is significant, and I am hoping for big things from Ignatius in the years to come. Overall, I think our current crop of Juniors are showing promising signs of producing some very strong players. We have already seen some excellent results from Thomas Pinnock, George Carolin-Unkovich, Aston Taminsjah, Ryan Sam and Chirag Saroha, and there is a queue of hungry young players forming behind them. For the first time in years, I feel confident about our future, unless John Fedec's prediction of the death of Chess in WA comes true. It is up to all of us to prove John wrong. Report by Haydn Barber. |
Open: =1st Peter de Yaak, 5/6 Steven Hintz 5 =3rd Adam Kelly, 4 Akef Saleh 4 U1850: 1st George Carolin-Unkovich 3.5 U1600: =1st Mike Nairn, 2.5 Dhruv Bhardwaj 2.5 Best Junior: 1st Adam Kelly 4 |
Place Name Loc Club Score
1-2 de Yaak, Peter 1948 5
Hintz, Steven 1693 5
3-4 Kelly, Adam 1633 Junior 4
Saleh, Akef 1952 4
5-6 Vlietstra, Marc 2060 3.5
Carolin-Unkovich, George 1727 Junior 3.5
7-8 Hvistendahl, Robert 1808 3
Tomic, Nedeljko 1809 3
9-11 Bhardwaj, Dhruv Junior 2.5
Nairn, Mike 1588 2.5
Dempster, Dave 1996 2.5
12-13 Donaldson, Gary 1496 1.5
Yap, Ignatius 1282 Junior 1.5
14 Watkins, Lucian 1154 0.5
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No Name Loc Club Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. Vlietstra, Marc 2060 3.5 9:W 6:L 2:W 4:L 7:D 10:W 2. Dempster, Dave 1996 2.5 10:L 12:W 1:L 13:W 3:L 11:D 3. Saleh, Akef 1952 4 11:W 14:W 4:L 6:L 2:W 5:W 4. de Yaak, Peter 1948 5 12:W 5:W 3:W 1:W 6:W 8:L 5. Tomic, Nedeljko 1809 3 13:W 4:L 6:W 14:W 8:L 3:L 6. Hvistendahl, Robert 1808 3 8:W 1:W 5:L 3:W 4:L 9:L 7. Carolin-Unkovich, George 1727 Junior 3.5 14:L 11:W 9:L 10:W 1:D 13:W 8. Hintz, Steven 1693 5 6:L 13:W 11:W 9:W 5:W 4:W 9. Kelly, Adam 1633 Junior 4 1:L 10:W 7:W 8:L 14:W 6:W 10. Nairn, Mike 1588 2.5 2:W 9:L 14:D 7:L 12:W 1:L 11. Donaldson, Gary 1496 1.5 3:L 7:L 8:L 12:L 13:W 2:D 12. Yap, Ignatius 1282 Junior 1.5 4:L 2:L 13:D 11:W 10:L 14:L 13. Watkins, Lucian 1154 .5 5:L 8:L 12:D 2:L 11:L 7:L 14. Bhardwaj, Dhruv Junior 2.5 7:W 3:L 10:D 5:L 9:L 12:W |